The final battle
by sunshinemagic101
Summary: 'Camp's under attack. We need to go on another quest' When Percy, Annabeth, Nico, Grover and Thalia, go on a quest against a new enemy, to what lengths will they go to to protect each other? Percabeth in later chapters :
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone **** This is my first Percy Jackson story, although I have been reading a lot of other ones on this site for ages (mainly percabeth of course) I have finally got the courage to post one myself. This story is pretty light to start of with. I am not planning it to be deep and angsty or anything, but hey, knowing me Percy and Annabeth will have to declare their love in the middle of raging war…as you can tell, I am a hopeless romantic **** But for now, this is just a story I have had in my head. I love the friendships between Grover, Percy, Thalia, Nico and Annabeth. I love the idea of the friends who stick by one another through everything, so it's going to be focused on that. I am of course adding in some Thalico and PERCABETH!, as well as maybe some Juniper? And noooooooooo Rachelxpercy! I really hope you like it, I know this first chapter dosen't give much away, but hang in there, it's coming. I would love some reviews, but please no really mean ones, and I would like constructive critisism to make my writing better…..but please say it nicely and smiley faces make everything a lot easier to handle haha. So enjoy and long live Percabeth! I do not own the Percy Jackson series, thank the gods for Rick! 3 **

My eyes were still half shut as I was being shaken roughly awake. Apparently, if nudging and telling me to get up haven't been enough, my attacker thought it would be prudent to now shake me for all I'm worth. My eyes snapped fully open and I quickly began struggling against my 'attacker', and my hand reached out clumsily to uncap riptide, before a calloused hand grasped around my wrist and pulled my hand away from my pajama pant's pocket.

'Percy! You moron, it's only me.' A low voice hissed, releasing me.

I relaxed immediately when I recognized the voice. I should have realized it was someone I knew when I was prevented from even touching riptide, who else knew that I kept my sword/pen religiously in my pocket?

'Nico!' I grinned, looking slightly sheepish at my illusions of an attack. Nico glared at me for another few seconds (and believe me, Nico's glares could possibly be worse than Hades' himself when he wanted them to be), before his lips twitched and his face broke into a wide grin as bellows of laughter spilled uncontrollably from his mouth. I shoved him playfully before chuckling with him, my chuckles growing louder as he began to loose his breath and hunched over in an attempt to control himself.

'Well, what would you have done if you saw someone that ugly leaning over you?' I grinned, grasping his hand before bringing him in for a quick hug.

'Yeah, that was it. Probably not because anyone who dares interrupts _daaaaaarling_ Percy's precious sleep has a one way ticket to visit my dad?'' Nico shot back sarcastically. Okay, the kid was good. In retaliation, I, er, got up from bed, and stretched and yawned loudly. Oh yeah, so much for a good come back. It was not long ago that Nico and I became good friends, the death of his older sister Bianca shook our already flimsy relationship to the core, but these last few months after the war we have gotten pretty close. With Grover out finding new campers all over America, I talked to Nico a lot more. And of course, I could always talk to Annabeth. Nico, on the outside, was hard and indifferent. A shell that he had created that fitted within what his perception of what a child of Hades what meant to be like. But once you got to know him, Nico is one of the most caring people I know. Not in the obvious way that Grover is, or Annabeth's natural kindness, but in his own way. The classic example is when Nico caught a guy trying to crack onto Annabeth when I wasn't around…let's just say that that guy has learned that it's right to be seriously intimidated by people who where a lot of black clothes and are named Nico Di Angelo. I thanked Nico after, and he only replied with simply saying that Annabeth is his friend too, and it was lucky it was him who saw him, because if it had been me that guy would not have been walking. Now, I'm not normally violent, but when it comes to Annabeth I can be slightly over-protective. Not that she really needs it, after Nico chased him off he checked to see if Annabeth was okay, only to find her grinning smugly at guy's broken toe from her hard foot slam. But still, when Nico changed the subject from my gratitude of protecting Annabeth, I swear his face brightened up slightly and his mouth turned up into a Nico-grin.

'So, Nico, what's up? Why are you in my room at 6am?' I questioned, finally finishing my massive yawn.

Nico paused for a second, and I realized while I was yawning he had already got my empty backpack from under my bed out and was unzipping it. He glanced at me, then said something that made my stomach drop.

'Camp's under attack. We need to go on another quest, Thalia and Grover are already in the car, we better hurry.'


	2. Chapter 2

I quickly pulled a dark blue polo shirt on over my worn-out jeans and pulled out the first hoodie I saw. Nico had already got some gray converses ready for me, and I packed a spare set of clothes, some mortal money and some drachma's in my backpack ready for the quest. We raced from my apartment, after writing a short note as quick as I could with my dyslexia to my mother and Paul explaining where I was, and that I loved them both. My stepfather Paul was cool, he didn't get freaked out about this sort of thing, unlike Annabeth's step-mother. I grimaced, thinking of how Annabeth would be doing with her stepmother right now.

The car was an old and rusted red truck, I could feel the rust on my fingers as I opened the squeaky backseat door. Not even bothering to chuck my stuff in the boot, Thalia didn't wait until my seatbelt was on before flooring it and continuing along the road as fast as she could without being caught. Nico sat in the front with Thalia, and I turned next to me to find a very happy satyr beaming at me.

'PERCY!' Grover yelled, flinging his arms around me, before jumping off, embarrassed. I laughed, and ruffled his short hair, making sure to flick his horns with my fingers.

'Hey, G-man! What's up?' I smiled happily back. Grover was one of my best and oldest friends, and I haven't seen him in months.

'Good, Perce. There are so many new campers you would not believe! But I suppose it might have been better if we didn't find them, with this new attack….they aren't trained at all!' Grover stated, his bubbly voice growing darker towards the end of the sentence and his hooves started twitching worriedly. I frowned, why would anyone attack camp again, only a few months after the war? I quickly dug into Grover's backpack that was under my feet and found a brand new can for him to chew on, he took it gratefully and began chewing at it before I turned to Thalia.

Thalia was thinner than I remember, and her hair had been cropped even shorter than before. Her black hair was now spiky, and barley met her shoulders. It was only a few weeks ago that she left the Hunters, and I knew that it must be taking a toll on her. She looked pretty pale, and her eyes were lacking that cheeky sparkle that they usually had. She, as well as the other two, was already dressed in 'quest' clothes, with Thalia wearing black denim shorts and ripped dark purple tights, with a black Green Day t-shirt and a black and white checked hoodie. Her converses were black with red skulls over them, and the only piece of jewelry on her was her camp necklace. I realized I had been staring at her, and she looked at me questioningly in the review mirror, long enough so that Nico had started to look Thalia as well, checking to see what I saw. Thalia wasn't happy, that much I knew. I forced a quick smile onto my face, and took a deep breath.

'Hey Thals!' I said almost too cheerily to be believable. I knew Thalia noticed however, as her eyes narrowed but she just smiled grimly back.

'Percy. How are you?'

Her voice was strained, like she had been crying. My eyes flickered to Nico, who brought his eyes up to meet mine, and he answered my unasked question – that he noticed something wasn't right too. I quickly looked away from Nico, so Thalia didn't notice, but of course she did. There were no secrets from any of us, we all knew each other too well.

'What are you staring at? Did I become a Hydra or something? Gods!' she snarled before aggressively changing lanes. Grover noticed her tone, and put a hand on her shoulder, reaching from the back seat. Thalia closed her eyes briefly at his touch, before turning her eyes back to the road. She glanced at me from the review mirror, and her eyes were softer and ashamed at her outlash.

'Thalia….' I began, I wanted to ask what's wrong, but I knew that she would probably snap again. I could handle Thalia's moods, but it wasn't going to help us if there was tension in the group.

'I'm fine, Percy. Just tired' she said quietly, smiling at me. I knew she was lying, when Thalia get's tired she get's into super-cranky mode and snaps at you for practically breathing too loudly, and when she's like that only Annabeth can get her out of those moods. I was about to say something else, but Nico tactfully changed the subject, knowing that this could turn into a full blow out if Thalia wanted it to be. I noticed that Nico gently brushed his hand against Thalia's and Thalia held his hand while using the other one to drive. I looked surprisingly at Grover, who just wagged his eyebrows at me which earned him a slap with our map from Nico. I grinned and shook my head, I should have known.

'So, where's Annabeth?' I questioned, not wanted to sound too desperate. I wanted to ask as soon as I got in the car, but I didn't want to sound too clingy or anything. They saw through that plan though.

Thalia smirked before saying 'We are picking her up from her school, did you think we were going to go on a quest without Annabeth? Gods, Annabeth was right, you ARE a seaweed brain'.

I laughed lightly, unable to keep the grin of my face. Annabeth was my best friend, and we were extremely close after the war. She lived with me in my apartment now, as her stepmother is being a total cow after she found out about why Annabeth was away (Annabeth told her she was away at design school when she was really at the war), and so I offered for her to move in with us. My mum and Paul love her, they treat her like their daughter. And Annabeth fit's right into the family, it's like she was made to be there. She still goes to her old school, even if it is more of a trip to get there. She leaves at 5:30 every morning from our house to arrive at school for the 8:30 bell, and with the traffic that we were stuck in, it was not unexpected that we would be there at about her lunch time at 1:00pm. I leaned my head on the window and yawned loudly, which caused Grover to chuckle and hand me some of his coffee. I took one sip throwing Grover a grateful smile, before spitting the hot coffee all over the backseat.

'Ew' I said weakly, wiping my mouth on my sleeve as Grover snatched his coffee out of my hand with an offended look on his face. Nico was smirking from the front seat,

'Didn't Grover tell you? He added some yummy mushed up tin into his coffee today' Nico drawled, his voice dripping with black amusement.

I pushed Nico's arm off the window, which only caused Nico to smirk even more. Even Thalia cracked a quick smile.

I groaned dramatically and slump back into my seat. 'Is anyone going to tell me what's the deal with camp yet?' I questioned, worry etching into my stomach. What had happened? Was any of our other friends hurt? Taken hostage? What about Chrion?

Grover and Nico looked at Thalia, who began grimly. 'Yesterday, Travis Stroll was on lookout duty at the entrance of camp, at night. He saw, just before he was knocked out cold, about 500 warrior demigods and monsters alike, charging at camp firing arrows and stuff. He was knocked out seconds later, but lucky his brother Connor was just about to take over the watch and pulled Travis inside and pulled the gates shut. No one could get in, but they waited outside. Anyway, they told Chiron and Chiron identified them as…' she paused.

'As what?' I said quietly.

With a glace to Nico, she continued 'as a demigod army. Apparently, Kronos had been building it years undercover. The reason why we haven't had many new campers over the years was not only because of the gods…but because Kronos has been taking half of them, well only the ones that had been born to 'bad' gods, and has been training them undercover to be his plan B. No one in Kronos' previous army knew about it, because he wanted them to be completely unexpected on us. So there they are, waiting at the gates of camp, and we are holding them off…but we're weakening'.

I sat back and took all of this in. How could we have not known about this? I should have known Kronos would never have only one plan. I shook my head, trying to click the pieces together.

Grover sighed and looked out the window miserably 'I don't know how much longer they can hold them off'', he said dejectedly.

Fear began to bubble in my hungry stomach, as I thought about our friends left at camp.

'We should be there then! We should be helping them fight them off! Not going on a stupid quest. They need us.' I said, completely frustrated. It seemed almost cowardly to run away leaving the others behind, and as glad I was that my best friends were safe away from the fighting, they could use our help. Nico and Thalia were great fighters, they could fend off 4 warriors at once. And Annabeth is possibly the best warrior at camp, including the Ares cabin. She is deadly with a knife, and everyone knows it. Grover needs to help the wood creatures. The list is endless, why can't the other's see?

'I said the same thing at first. Percy, believe me. I wanted to run my knife through those loser's who threatened my home. But we need to know more about them, we know nothing, and if we know nothing how can we defeat them? I asked Chiron if he could send others, but he said that it would be dangerous, and that we would really be the only ones who could handle it. No where is safe now, Percy. Anyone else who goes on the quest will be in just as much danger as they are back at camp, probably more because they are in the open'.

'Yeah. C'mon, a few days max and then we will be back at camp' Grover said, not needed to look at me to tell I was already calming down.

'So…what are we looking for?' I asked.

This time it was Nico who answered, 'Information on how to destroy them. We have no idea how they were trained. But ideally, If we can help them, even better. The army is filled with demigods who have only ever heard bad stories about camp, they were made to hate the gods for how they treated them, and more importantly their parents. All of the parents are either evil, banished, trapped or destroyed by the gods' Nico paused, and looked at his feet 'My brothers and sisters are apart of it'.

'I…w-what?' I stuttered. I didn't know that Hades had had any other children. I looked at Nico, and I saw that he was waiting for my reaction. He was sad, and angry too.

'I…oh man, I'm sorry. I never knew you had other siblings' I said quietly, not wanting to say Bianca's name.

'It's fine. I was shocked at first…but now I'm just pissed off' he growled.

'Yeah…' I said lamely.

'Anyway' Thalia continued 'Let's go get Annabeth', she sighed, turning up her heavy metal rock music and driving even faster.

I nodded, and despite what I just heard and the new weight in my stomach, I brightened slightly at the thought that I would see Annabeth soon.


	3. Chapter 3

Moments later it seemed, I was being shaken awake by Grover, telling me we were almost at Annabeth's school. I had seen her school before, I had been in the hall for when Annabeth got her numerous awards, and at the front office when I picked her up from school because she was sick. But I have never fully appreciated how beautiful the school was. Compared to Goode High, this school was immaculate. I guess this is why Annabeth likes it so much, the architecture is awesome. A sudden thought occurred to me.

'Hey, guys, how are we going to get Annabeth out of class?'. We had made pretty good time, and the traffic was not as bad as we estimated it to be, so we got here at around 11:30, and Annabeth would be in maths right now. I know her timetable off by heart, and she knows mine, it's just easier when we need to text each other, we make sure we don't text in classes where the teachers are really strict, unless we really need each other. If Annabeth really needed me, she knows that no matter how horrible my current teacher was, I would always answer her call or text, or better yet, run straight from the room and pick her up from her school or wherever she was. And I know she would do the same for me. That's why we are best friends, we can completely trust and count on each other for anything.

'Uh, didn't think about that. This is when we need Annabeth!' Grover whined flopping back in the seat dramatically.

'True that. Um…okay, how about we go up to the office and ask if we can take her out of class?' Nico suggested, taking out his knife and swiping at the fly that was annoying him. I watched as Grover's face went from red to purple and he looked like he was about to explode as Nico continued to obliviously swipe at the fly. I playfully nicked Nico on the side of the head, and he looked around about to retaliate, but when he saw Grover and quickly slid the offending item back into his pocket.

Nico scratched his nose awkwardly, before muttering a hasty 'Er, sorry Grover', and lifting his dark eyes to look nervously at the angry Satyr. Grover's face was already back to normal but he replied by stating loudly 'Insects have feelings too, Nico!'

Nico looked ashamed, we all knew how Grover felt about the environment. 'I know, man. I'm sorry'.

Grover looked at Nico for a moment before smiling slightly and ruffling his hair. 'No problem, buddy'. Nico just rolled his eyes and squeezed Thalia's hand. Thalia smiled properly for what seemed like the whole trip, and said 'Okay, now that we have our environmental morals sorted out. I have come up with a way to get Annabeth. All we have to do is send her an iris messge, no one else will see it, and she will come outside, make up some excuse that she's sick or something and she can go 'home'.'

We all stared at Thalia, Grover's mouth slightly opened, Nico's eyes widened, and me looking like a deer in head lights.

Thalia looked around at her best friends and blushed. 'What?' she said defensively.

Grover broke into a huge grin 'Wow, Thals. Maybe being turned into a tree made you super smart or something?'.

'Oh, haha. Your hilarious, Grover. Really' she snapped back, but she looked pleased with herself.

'Perce, do you want to do it?' Nico questioned.

'Yep, I have heaps of drachma's' I replied. I quickly sprayed some water and prayed, urging for my offering to be accepted. Then I spoke Annabeth's name and waited for her to appear.

As soon as Annabeth came into view, I literally lost my breath. I had missed seeing her this morning, as she didn't wake me up as she normally did when she left. She had her hair in a messy ponytail, and she was looking at the teacher intently, her perfect eyebrow furrowed in confusion. I looked at the angel in front of me, and wondered if it was weird that I thought my best friend was incredibly beautiful. I couldn't help her name that escaped my lips, so effortlessly as breathing. She flinched as she recognized my voice and whipped her head around to try to find the source. She located me in a matter of seconds, and her eye's widened as she took in Grover, Thalia and Nico behind me. She looked back to me questioningly, and I saw something in her eyes click. She knew something was wrong.

'Hey, wise girl.' I whispered, smiling at her.

'Percy…..do you need me to get out?' she whispered back, her lips barley moving as she pretended to pay attention to her maths equations. I nodded and she moved her head slightly down to communicate that she understood, before running her hand through the mist, but not before I saw her fake period cramps and put her hand up, groaning to the teacher rather convincingly that she was about to die and needed to go home immediately. I smirked as shook my head, she was defiantly the smartest girl I have ever met.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey everyone! Here is a new chapter :) I know these last few chapters have been pretty fast in coming out, but the next ones might take a bit longer because school is starting again! Yay...hahahaha. But hang in there, my awesomes, because I will defiantly post at least one chapter per week, if not more :) Reviews make me very happy! Thanks and I hope you like it! **

As soon as Annabeth was outside with her school bag, I saw her look around for us. Sure enough, seconds after she walked outside, we pulled up onto the curb and we all jumped out of the car. Grover was the first to reach her, and he pulled her into a massive hug, lifting her off her feet and spinning her around so fast I was surprised she didn't throw up.

Annabeth giggled and feigned anger as she demanded to be put down onto her feet, slapping him lightly on the arm. I laughed, she looked so cute when she pretended to be angry. Her nose got all scrunched up and her enormous grey eyes turned to slits as she put her petite hands on her hips, quite the accomplishment really as Grover still had not let her go.

'ANNNNAABETHHHH!' Grover squealed, not even trying to control his excitement. Annabeth had been friends with Grover even longer than I had, and after our first quest together back when we were 12, we soon became inseparable. I sometimes wondered if they had ever felt anything more than being friends towards one another, and a feeling bubbled in my stomach and rose up my throat. I had no idea what this feeling was….it wasn't _jealousy_. I just didn't think they were right for each other. But they know that as well, in fact, I don't think the thought has ever crossed their minds. I once asked Grover when I first met Annabeth if he liked her, and Grover's reaction was priceless. He spit out the lemonade that he was casually drinking and he hastily started chocking on his own spit. I clapped him on the back a few times, and when he regained himself, he cried 'Annabeth! Percy, no way. Are you kidding? I mean, she's very pretty and really nice…but she's one of my best friends, I think of her as my sister. And liking my _sister_? Ew!' He shook his head a few times and looked at me if I was insane, but I kind of got the message.

Annabeth's silvery laugh filled the air as she hugged Grover tighter. I smiled at Thalia who grinned back, it felt just so right to have us all together again. 'I missed you too, goat boy!' Annabeth joked, lifting a hand from around his neck to ruffle his hair. Grover finally let Annabeth go when Nico sneered pointedly, 'You are not the only one who hasn't seen her for a while, Groves'.

I knew he wasn't referring to himself, as he only saw Annabeth last Saturday when we went to see a movie together. He was looking at Thalia, a small smile on his face as he watched her beaming at her best friend. Annabeth turned to look at Thalia and I watched as her face grew from a brilliant smile to a glowing beam. She ran to Thalia and Thalia let out a huff as Annabeth's small body weight hit her like a bull hit's it's victim. Annabeth and Thalia jumped up and down as they hugged each other and laughed. But as Thalia pulled away, I swear Annabeth could see the same thing I could when I first looked at Thalia, because Annabeth's mouth pulled down slightly and her eyes widened for a fraction of a second, before she composed herself and turned to look at Nico. No one else noticed, she was so quick at covering up what she noticed, but I saw it. I knew her better than anyone. Annabeth walked up to Nico and they hugged each other.

'Hey Annie, long time no see?' Nico always had a soft spot for Annabeth, I think she kind of replaced his sister Bianca when she died. Annabeth was there to look after him, and he let her see the real him before any of us were able to.

'Yeah, only a few days last time I checked' she smiled back at our friend.

Nico chuckled and followed Thalia back into the car putting Annabeth's bag into the boot as he went. Grover was sniffing around, but I could tell he wasn't looking for monsters. In fact, I am pretty sure it had everything to do with the fact that there was a hotdog stand not more than 100 meters away. Annabeth looked at the grass briefly, and then her eyes flickered to my waiting ones, and she smiled and walked over to me.

'So, how was your day before we interrupted?' I asked gently, I knew Annabeth was nervous about school today, to find out if she had been picked to present a speech at the principles official dinner.

She knew what I was asking about, and rolled her eyes as she took my hand and led me into the backseat of the car. 'Don't you think I would have called if I had found out already, Seaweed brain?' she laughed.

I smiled and shook my head, she was right, she would have been bursting to tell me.

'So, what's happening?' she asked, looking curiously at each of us, but she knew something was wrong, otherwise we would not all be here. She wasn't the daughter of Athena for nothing. As Grover told the story this time and explained about our quest, I never took my sea-green eyes away from Annabeth's face. I could see all of the same emotions I felt playing out on her face, and felt them wash over me all over again. Her grip tightened on me hand when Grover told her about who was behind the army, Kronos, and I knew that her thoughts had immediately gone to Luke. Her and Thalia's former friend, protector, companion, and most recently traitor. I tried not to think about Luke much, as much as I hated his choices and the results of them, as much as I hated what he did to my friends and what he did to help Kronos rise to power, as much as I hated how he hurt Thalia and Annabeth, I still could remember so clearly the moment when he took his life to save us all. I saw Thalia quickly glance from the driver's seat at Annabeth and Annabeth met her gaze evenly. They had both suffered from that boy, Annabeth loved him as a close friend and thought of him as her family for years, and Thalia, I think loved him more that, even though she would never be caught admitting it. A conversation about Luke with my cousin, daughter or Zeus, is not the smartest idea around. I put the hand that Annabeth wasn't holding around her shoulder and squeezed her gently and I felt her lean back into my chest, letting me support her. It hadn't been easy, and it shouldn't have been with how much she had been hurt in the past, but she now had no problem coming to me if she was scared or needed help, I was the only one who she didn't have to pretend everything was okay around, and she knew that I would never hurt her or leave her. I tightened my grip on her hand as I thought that, and wrapped my arm around her shoulder's tighter, pulling her protectively against my chest. I would do anything to protect her, and on this quest I had I feeling I might just have to do that. I glanced at Grover to see him watching us as Nico continued the story, and I knew that he was thinking the same thing: What are we going to do?

**A/N - Sooo...Hope you liked it :) Remember, if you have any ideas for what could happen next, especially cute senarios for Percabeth/Thalico...thinking of bringing in a certain Rachel Elizabeth Dare! Haha it's going to get good, but any ideas please I would love to hear them, and thanks again!**


	5. Just a disclaimer :

Ps – I do not own any Percy Jackson! :D


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey awesome ones :) Here is the next chapter, sorry it took so long! What school gives students assignments on THE FIRST DAY BACK! Anyway, enjoy! And once again, any ideas you have, characters you want to make an appearance, anything, let me know and I will do it! Disclaimer - I do not own Percy Jackson or anything to do with it, unfortunately :) **

The car ride to DC (our first destination) was probably the longest of my life. Anxiety bubbled uncomfortably in my stomach as I thought about the demigod army. After all that we had done, it was still not over. I mean, I'm not complaining, I would rather it was me who helped out, and I trusted the people sitting in the cramped car with my life to save camp, but I felt cheated. Like we had won a huge prize, and then to have it snatched away from us and told it was all a joke. Like the few precious months of golden sun were a distant memory and now the storm clouds had covered my world, shading it into darkness, fighting, and worrying all over again. The first hours of the car trip were filled with the sounds of Annabeth's brain ticking, Grover's can chewing, Nico tapping his knife on the dashboard, Thalia jerking the car forward faster whenever she had an idea, and me switching between looking at Annabeth and her brains in awe and passing Grover new cans. We decided that we would go first to DC, because that's where the army was trained, in some underground camp.

'And that's all we know?' Annabeth asked in disbelief, her eyes widening and her legs twitching in frustration.

'Yep, that's all that Chiron could work out' Nico said grimly, grunting in pain as the knife he was playing with out of boredom slipped onto his thigh, leaving a thin, clean cut in it's place as Thalia turned the corner with unnecessary force, as another thought crossed her mind.

'Hey! I just remembered….oh, sorry, Nico' she grimaced, looking at Nico. Grover and I cracked up, as Nico did a rude hand gesture to us and slipped his knife into his backpack again. Annabeth tried to hold it together, but when Thalia finished rustling through her backpack with one hand as she tried to steer with the other, and pulled out a barney the dinosaur band aid, she lost it and laughed along with the rest of us. Grover gave Annabeth a high five over me, and she looked at me with light dancing in her eyes as I wiped the laughter tears from mine.

'But, anyway, I just remembered….shouldn't we have gotton-' Thalia began again, the laughter still evident in her eyes, as she hiccupped between words. Annabeth gasped and jumped so fast in her seat that my arm that was around her shoulder fell off as if electrocuted and I unclicked riptide in a matter of seconds, yelling 'It's okay guys, I got this'.

There was a short silence as my friends froze. I awkwardly stared at them for a moment, before mumbling 'There, er, is no monsters….is there?'. The silence was deafening, before the car erupted in epic laughter and fake screams as Nico pretended to fight off Annabeth, who was pretending to be a monster. I quickly unclicked riptide, blushing profusely, and muttered something unintelligent while Grover and Thalia almost wet themselves. I knew there was no monster, so why was adrenaline pulsing through my veins and I was aware of every movement and sound? Ah, stupid ADHD.

'Aw, don't worry Perce, I'll protect you' Thalia grinned, as Nico began to gasp for air from laughing so hard. I poked my tongue out at her and flicked Grover's horns again, which I know really annoys him, before turning to Annabeth to see her smirking at me, shaking her head. I pretended to pout, but this only made Annabeth smirk even more and face the window. I didn't like it when she turned away from me, it felt wrong and I could easily identify the warmth that left my body when she turned her back to face me. I felt my own smirk light up my face as my hands crawled around her waist, lifting her onto my lap before tickling her hips, where she is ticklish the most. She squealed in delighted laughter and demanded to be let go, but I just buried my head into the crook of her neck and shook my head, feeing my shaggy hair brush against her soft skin.

'Nope, not until you admit that I was protecting everyone's behinds from that terrifying monster'. Thalia scoffed and fake sneezed, but the words 'Loser' could be heard quite clearly by each of us. Nico snorted and Grover laughed, while Annabeth squirmed uselessly against my strong hold. Annabeth quickly changed her tactic, pouted and looked at me with big, grey sparkly eyes, and I could feel my resolve crumbling. My hands slowly snaked away from her waist. Grover giggled as Thalia smirked. 'Wimp! Your spineless, Perce', while Nico nodded in ferocious agreement.

Annabeth smiled widely and said simply 'Only to me', before leaning into the boot and getting an architecture book out of her bag in the back to read. I smiled at her fondly, and Nico started to tell Grover about this new alien video game he bought, when Thalia screamed and the car tires screeched as we swerved violently and narrowly missed another car, spinning around the road. Grover yelled as something hard and heavy hit the roof the car, making a huge dint right above his head. I felt Annabeth's hand fumble to find mine, and she held my sweaty hand so hard it would almost hurt if I weren't invincible. The car was rapidly spinning off the edge of a road….and off the highway into the water. I called out in warning and Thalia's eyes widened as she saw our final destination. Annabeth's eyes were frantically searching around for something, anything that would give her an idea. Nico was bracing himself against the window, and Grover was screaming. The car slowly stopped spinning and dangled off the edge of the road. If a fly landed on one side of the car it would have tipped. My heart was beating so fast and everything seemed in slow motion. One second there was silence, and then Annabeth screamed and at the same time I could feel the car starting to drop. Nico's eyes flew to mine, and I saw the terror in his. He thought we were done for. All of a sudden, Grover's hand flew to Thalia's face, just as her side window shattered into a million pieces, Thalia shrieked and Grover howled in pain, and I could see Grover's blood mix with the broken glass, but Thalia's face remained unscathed. There wasn't anytime to say anything though, as Nico suddenly pulled out his knife so swiftly you could hardly see it and looked out of the window in horror. At first I didn't see what he was looking at, but then through the smoke from the car exhaust I saw a massive creature running at us at full speed: a minotaur. I swore and my arms reached for Annabeth, but I was too late, the minotaur slammed Annabeth's car door, crushing her against it's body weight. Her piercing shrieks filled the air, and I all I could hear was her beautiful voice filled with agony as her bones shattered.

'Annabeth!' I roared, as I leaned over to her, causing the car to drop off the edge of the highway. I could vaguely hear Thalia screaming, Grover yelling and Nico swearing at the top of his lungs, but I couldn't focus on anything much as my fumbling fingers felt Annabeth's limp body. Nico and Thalia clung to each other, and Grover hung on to his seat as we flew through the air. It seemed like years, but it was only a matter of seconds. I grabbed Annabeth as gently as I could and shielded her with my body from the steely water. The last thing I remember was hitting the water, before it all went black.

**Thanks everyone for reading and have a super cool day :) Remember, reviews make me smile wider than Grover with an enchilada, so please submit :D**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys **** Okay, so I know it's been ages since my last chapter, and I know being super busy is no excuse, but here it is! As always, Percy Jackson is not owned by me. ANNND, just a super special thankyou for all of those people who reviewed/added to favourites/author subscribed…without you it would not have made me motivated to write this chapter! THANKYOU! And so without further ado, here is the next painfully short chapter! **

My back was still stiff as I walked slowly through the underwater palace. It was my dad who saved us, causing the water to break Moses style as well feel deep into the sea. I had only woke up an hour or so ago, and my brain was still struggling to keep up with what had happened. I walked through the foyer of the palace, and out to a big window which looked out into the sea, and I watched seahorses frolic as I processed through today's events. So, we were attacked by a minotaur, Grover's hand was a bloody mess, Nico had a concussion, Thalia was suffering from severe shock and external bleeding from her leg, and Annabeth was still out cold as they tried to work on her broken bones. Her entire right side had been shattered from the minotaur, and according to the healers we had working on her, it was a miracle she survived. My blood turned cold just thinking about what could have so easily happened. If the minotaur had been going just that little bit faster, or if Annabeth had not moved that inch away from the door in reaction to the smashing sound at her side, my world could have easily been destroyed. I shivered involuntarily at the mere thought of loosing Annabeth. She was my best friend, I could not live without her. I wasn't injured, thanks to my invincibility, but I didn't feel so invincible now as I thought about my friend' injuries. My dad and my brother Tyson were in dad's underwater kitchen now, cooking up something that I would no doubt have to pretend to eat while chucking it subtly under the table into my shoes. Not the greatest feeling, but hey, if you ate my dad's food, you would put up with food in your shoes for a bit too.

I heard shuffling behind me and I turned to see Thalia limping towards me. I quickly held out my hand to catch her as she tripped, and I helped her into a chair by the window. She blushed and muttered thanks, looking determinably at the floor. She hated getting help with things, she and Annabeth were so alike in this aspect, they were both so proud. I eyed her leg with a grimace on my face.

'How's the leg?' I asked quietly.

'Fine. It's just bugging me how hard it is to walk. How else am I going to beat you up?' she shrugged, raising her eyebrows at me, so her electric blue eyes pierced mine

I chuckled lightly and looked out the window, the sea horses were now socialising with the star fish. I noticed Thalia looking at me, and I turned my head which was resting on my hands, a fraction to the side to face her. I raised my eyebrows questioningly, but she just sighed and lay her head back against the back of the chair.

'She will be okay you know. There was nothing you could do'.

I squeezed my eyes shut at her words, before opening them and looking up at my cousin, only to find her looking at her feet, the same worry in her eyes. I realised that she was not only speaking to me, but to herself as well.

'Thals…it wasn't your fault. That minotaur came out of no where.' I claimed softly, watching as her eyes worriedly lifted to meet mine.

'But If I had just…I mean…If…If I had never left the hunters, this never would have happened' she finally spat out, before crossing her arms and looking out the window, her already thin mouth in a tight line.

I paused for a few seconds, not really sure on what to say. This was Grover's field, not mine. I finally managed 'Don't say that. You know it's not true. We would have been happy for you to choose whatever…stay, or leave the hunters, but truthfully, I am so happy your with us on this quest. There would be no one else to help us do it. I mean, there is only one Thalia right? I mean, no one else has been turned into a pine cone, or, um…' I babbled.

Thalia laughed, and I felt a smile light up my own face. 'God, you're a seaweed brain' she snorted, shifting herself up from her seat.

'You can say that again' came a voice from the shadows. I saw Thalia's eyes grow soft when she saw him walk forward, and I turned to see Nico smirking at me playfully. Nico has this weird talent at not being noticed, slinking in the shadows and sulking at the back was his forte.

'Darth Vader' I retorted. Nico merely smiled and helped Thalia out of her chair.

'Grover's in with Annabeth now. The healer said she's waking up. Thought you might want to…' Nico began. But I was already out the door and walking into Annabeth's room.

**Thankyou! And, reviews = make me happy than Grover finding Pan. Thankyou **


	8. Chapter 8

**Without further ado... and I do not own Percy Jackson...damn! **

Annabeth groaned lightly as I swept a sweaty strand of hair from her sweat-glistened head. I quickly tore my hand away from her as if electrocuted – I didn't want to hurt her. She was in so much pain already, every movement, every breath; you could see her face scrunch together in pain or her fingers twitch in agony in response. But Annabeth just groaned louder when the warmth of my shaking hand left her face, and her mouth pulled into a tight line as she slowly and painfully brought her clammy hand to try and find mine. I quickly obliged and took her petite hand gently in mine, before kneeling beside her head on the ground, so my face was level with hers. God, she was beautiful.

'Annabeth?' I whispered. She merely flickered her eyes, and squeezed my hand a little tighter.

'Is she okay?' Grover whined quietly, reminding me of a horse who saw a snake, whining in distress. He fidgeted with the sheets at the bottom of her bed, with his enormous orbs looking at her, seeing through the bandages and to the pain that lay underneath.

I glanced at Grover, and took a shaky breath before I answered 'I don't think so…she's not waking up'. I caught the sob that arose in my chest, and put a fist into my mouth to stop the strange, strangled noise that was escaping from my throat. Grover was at my side in a second, placing a firm hand on my shoulder. Grover was the drama king of us all, but if one of us were loosing it, he was our rock. I quickly swallowed the lump in my throat, and smiled gratefully at Grover. Grover just smiled sadly back and sat at the end of Annabeth's bed, playing gently with her toes. Grover always found toes fascinating, as he didn't have them himself. I will never forget the morning I woke up to find him at the bottom on my bed, spreading my toes apart. I yelped but remained still as Grover separated my pinkie toe from my 4th one.

'Er, Grover? What, um, what are you doing?'

'Oh, morning Perce. I um, just wanted to see what toes looked like separated' he blushed, carefully removing the twigs he had used to separate my toes. I just laughed, and soon enough he was laughing with me, our hysterics echoing all the way through camp, so that Nico came to find us, asking what the deal was. Nico stopped and stared with his eyebrows raised at Grover's hands on my feet with a bunch of twigs, and me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe. Nico smirked and addressed Grover.

'I didn't know that Percy was ticklish, Grover?' Grover looked confused for a minute, before Annabeth's voice came from behind Nico, 'I sure did'. She was leaning against the door frame, her camp t-shirt on and wearing some faded denim shorts. My chuckles quickly subsided as I took in her facial expression. Her grey eyes had that cheeky glint in them that she had whenever she was planning something good. I gulped.

'Did you know that Percy's the most ticklish around his ribs?' she said lightly, dancing over to me, and softly stroking a hand over my ribs. I was insane, it tickled so much. Damn you, Annabeth. Grover stopped looking confused and 'Ahhh'ed in understanding before innocently getting up and walking over to the other side of my bed. I looked nervously between Grover, Annabeth and Nico who were all crowding around my lying figure, looking innocent, which for any of them was quite an achievement. There was a moment of silence, before Nico called 'ATTACK!', and I was bombarded with multiple hands tickling my ribs and stomach. I gasped for air, tears streaming down my face, and begged them to stop through my erotic laughter. It was finally when I managed to choke out 'Annabeth…is…ticklish, Hey! Haha, on her feet!' that the tickling stopped. Annabeth looked quickly around at all of us, and muttered 'Oh crap', before turning swiftly and running from my cabin at full speed….towards the water. For a child of Athena, she has a pretty hard time remembering that I can control the water. Let's just say that in little less than 5 mintues, Annabeth was drenched from head to toe, before I turned on Grover and Nico.

Remembering this made my heart hurt as I watched Annabeth's shallow breathing. I didn't even notice when Nico and Thalia came in. Thalia sat by Annabeth's head and stroked her hair, and Nico sat on the side of the bed, his hand on her lower leg. Annabeth shuddered and whimpered, and we all spoke comforting words to her as she battled through.

I turned to ask Nico to pass a wet towel, when Annabeth abruptly screamed and her eyes burst open. She yanked her limbs from our grip and began tossing around in her bed, screeching and crying. It must have almost killed her from the pain, but whatever she was frightened of was causing her more torture than her physical ailments.

Nico ducked as Annabeth's arm swiped at his head. 'She's having a nightmare!' he bellowed over Annabeth's screams.

I stayed low away from her tossing arms and legs, and cupped her face with my hands, whispering to her and caressing her ice-cold face, trying to get her to calm down. Thalia was holding Annabeth's arms down, and Grover and Nico had pinned down her feet, holding them still while I comforted her.

At the sound of my voice whispering her name, she stopped immediately and her beautiful eyes squeezed shut, splashing the salty tears from her eyes. I watched as the tears rolled down her now flushed cheeks, and I brought up my hand to gently brush them away.

'Percy?' she whispered, her eyes opening to reveal a world of pain and tears. I gasped as I looked into them but recovered myself for her sake.

'Shh…Wise girl, I'm right here. I'm right here' I crooned, stroking her face as she hiccupped and more tears glistened down her face, soaking Thalia's hands that were hugged around her neck, holding Annabeth tightly to Thalia's heart. She looked at me desperately but choked 'Okay', before sobs racked through her tiny frame, and she groaned in pain as her body shook. Nico was stroking her calves, and Grover had a hand on Thalia's shoulder and the other hand passing Nico a fresh bandage to fix up the bandage that she tore open in her distress.

'Annabeth…what is it? Baby, what's wrong?' I whispered. It must be something really bad for her to cry like this, she never cried in front on anyone, except for me and possibly Thalia.

Annabeth met my eyes but then closed them as if remembering horrible. I grasped her hand harder in support. With her eyes still scrunched shut, she whispered 'We have to get out of here. I had a dream…they're coming for us', then she opened her eyes and addressed Thalia hardly, the protectiveness evident in her voice. Her friend, her companion…her sister.

'Thalia…they want you'.

I could feel my eyes narrowing, I could see Grover's hand tightening on Thalia's shoulder, and Nico hissed and jumped up from the bed, drawing his knife.

'Bull crap they'll get to her' he spat, already packing up our stuff at the back of the room.

'Thals, stay behind us at all times' Grover ordered, one of the only times I had ever heard him sound like an authority.

'But…why…I don't…' Thalia asked, confusion etching into her face before I cut her off.

'They'll have to get through us first' I stated bluntly, looking at Thalia pulling out her bow and arrow from her bag. Then a horrible thought occurred to me.

'Wait! What about Annabeth, if she can't walk like this…how can she run?' I hushed, looking at my friends. Nico swore and Grover groaned, putting his head in his hands. Thalia looked at concern at Annabeth. Annabeth was looking guilty and upset, but proud and stubborn.

'I can too run. Someone pass me my knife.' She ordered, her voice only slightly cracking. God, she was stubborn.

'Annabeth…' I began quietly. But she just glared at me and stated 'I can run. I can fight. Thalia needs me. I will not let us down'. Her and her pride. Nico and Grover stopped packing and looked up at Annabeth, with guilt in their eyes.

'Annabeth, no one thinks that. Of course you aren't letting us down. The fact you are safe is important to us. No one thinks that' Thalia began, bending down to rub Annabeth's arm soothingly. Annabeth looked pointedly at Nico, who looked ashamed of himself. I glared at Nico.

'Annie…I didn't…we didn't…' Nico began, looking horrorstruck.

'It's fine. Let's just get Thalia out of here. Seaweed Brain, can you please pass me my knife?' Annabeth asked, easing herself out of bed, trying to look normal, but I could see how much it hurt and her lips were squeezed shut.

'No, I can't let you…' I began, before a smashing sounds entered out ears and the room shook. I gasped and looked up.

'They're here' Thalia whispered. There was an eerie silence, before another crash filled the palace.

'Turn off the lights, Thalia get behind me' Nico snarled, taking up a defensive position in front of Annabeth's bed. It was Grover who obliged with turning off the lights.

There was silence once more before I tore out riptide and upcapped it at the sound of distant footsteps making their way to the room.

'Nic, is the door locked?' I whispered, passing Annabeth her knife reluctantly, as she frowned at me saying 'About time!'. Nico nodded not taking his eyes from the door. Annabeth eased herself out of bed, and gripped her knife. I stepped directly in front of her and took my own defensive stance. Annabeth sighed, half in annoyance and half in pain. 'Seaweed Brain…I can take care of myself'.

'I know you can, but I am not taking that chance. Please, Wise girl, I can't loose you. Stay behind me' I pleaded, keeping my eyes glued to the door, tightening the hold on my knife. There were whispers right outside the door, and I heard Grover gasp, before Thalia sent him a glare to shut him up. Suddenly, Annabeth took out her Yankee's hat from under her covers and tossed it to Thalia, before silently urging for her to put it on. Thalia looked at the cap for a second, before looking at Annabeth's fragile figure, and shook her head and tried to pass it back. But Annabeth shook her head furiously and pointed to the hat and then to Thalia. The order was clear, put on the hat.

Thalia's eyes met mine, and I nodded slightly, telling her that I understood. The worry in her eyes lessened slightly as she looked into my sea-green ones. I nodded once more, silently telling her that I would protect Annabeth no matter what. Thalia already knew this of course. I glanced at Grover, who was looking at me, and I saw him nod, backing me up. The silent agreement was made – Nico and Thalia would protect Thalia, and Grover and I, if it were needed, would protect Annabeth. Thalia would rather die herself then see Annabeth in death.

Just as my eyes turned back to the door, it burst open, and in between the dust, smoke and broken wood, I saw a figure standing at the doorway. I chocked as the dust filled my lungs, and my eyes burned as the smoke infested them, but it was Annabeth's sudden movement that really had me worried. She had yanked me suddenly from my spot, causing me to move out of the way of an arrow that would have pierced my Achilles spot.

I turned around for the source. What I saw would haunt me for the rest of my life.

**Thank you so much for reading, and for my lovely reviews, especially of the last chapter! They made me so happy! Remember, any suggestions just post them in the reviews, especially of what will happen next. The next chapter will most defiantly be a fight scene, for my reviewer out there! Reviews = make me happier than Grover with a tin can! Thanks :) **


End file.
